WEC: Toyota again 1-2 in final Bahrain practice
Kamui Kobayashi again topped the times for Toyota in final practice for this weekend’s Bahrain 6 Hours World Endurance Championship round.
The Japanese driver posted the fastest time of the weekend so far with his first flying lap during a qualifying simulation at the start of the 60-minute Free Practice 3 session.
His 1m48.978s aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID was just under a tenth quicker than his best from FP2 on Friday morning, a session held in cooler conditions.
Kobayashi ended up seven tenths clear of teammate Brendon Hartley in the sister Toyota.
The No.8 Toyota completed the session after receiving repairs after an FP2 accident. Sebastien Buemi received a reprimand and a four license points deduction after an incident with No.85 Iron Lynx Ferrari
Porsche again led LMGTE Pro after the WEC neutered the Ferrari cars. Neel Jani posted a 1m58.230s lap in his 911 RSR-19 which he shares with Kevin Estre. The AF Corse Ferrari was closer to Porsche as No.51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo beat the sister No.52 AF Corse run car in third.
The No.28 JOTA driven by Tom Blomqvist took top position in LMP2 for second consecutive session.
Dempsey-Proton’s Porsche driven by Jaxon Evans set a time of 1m59.502s to top LMGTE Am as air temperatures sizzled at 34.3 degrees Celsius!
Practice 3 Results
| Pos | No. | Class | Drivers | Car | Time | Behind |
| 1 | 7 | HYPERCAR | Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 – Hybrid | 1m48.978s | 0.000s |
| 2 | 8 | HYPERCAR | Sébastien Buemi/Kazuki Nakajima/Brendon Hartley | Toyota GR010 – Hybrid | 1m49.689s | 0.711s |
| 3 | 36 | HYPERCAR | Andre Negrao/Nicolas Lapierre/Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | 1m50.166s | 1.188s |
| 4 | 28 | LMP2 | Sean Gelael/Stoffel Vandoorne/Tom Blomqvist | Oreca 07 | 1m50.696s | 1.718s |
| 5 | 22 | LMP2 | Philip Hanson/Fabio Scherer/Filipe Albuquerque | Oreca 07 | 1m51.351s | 2.373s |
| 6 | 38 | LMP2 | Roberto Gonzalez/Antonio Felix da Costa/Anthony Davidson | Oreca 07 | 1m51.695s | 2.717s |
| 7 | 34 | LMP2 | Jakub Smiechowski/Renger van der Zande/Alex Brundle | Oreca 07 | 1m52.061s | 3.083s |
| 8 | 20 | LMP2 | Dennis Andersen/Anders Fjordbach/Robert Kubica | Oreca 07 | 1m52.208s | 3.230s |
| 9 | 70 | LMP2 | Esteban Garcia/Loic Duval/Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | 1m52.477s | 3.499s |
| 10 | 31 | LMP2 | Robin Frijns/Ferdinand Habsburg/Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | 1m52.499s | 3.521s |
| 11 | 29 | LMP2 | Frits van Eerd/Giedo van der Garde/Job Van Uitert | Oreca 07 | 1m52.546s | 3.568s |
| 12 | 21 | LMP2 | Henrik Hedman/Juan Pablo Montoya/Ben Hanley | Oreca 07 | 1m53.708s | 4.730s |
| 13 | 1 | LMP2 | Sophia Flörsch/Beitske Visser/Gabriel Aubry | Oreca 07 | 1m55.178s | 6.200s |
| 14 | 44 | LMP2 | Miro Konopka/Oliver Webb/Kush Maini | Oreca 07 | 1m57.445s | 8.467s |
| 15 | 92 | LMGTE PRO | Kevin Estre/Neel Jani | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 1m58.230s | 9.252s |
| 16 | 51 | LMGTE PRO | Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 1m58.399s | 9.421s |
| 17 | 52 | LMGTE PRO | Daniel Serra/Miguel Molina | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 1m58.659s | 9.681s |
| 18 | 91 | LMGTE PRO | Gianmaria Bruni/Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 1m58.870s | 9.892s |
| 19 | 77 | LMGTE AM | Christian Ried/Jaxon Evans/Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 1m59.502s | 10.524s |
| 20 | 85 | LMGTE AM | Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy/Katherine Legge | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 1m59.858s | 10.880s |
| 21 | 60 | LMGTE AM | Rino Mastronardi/Andrea Piccini/Matteo Cressoni | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 1m59.987s | 11.009s |
| 22 | 83 | LMGTE AM | François Perrodo/Nicklas Nielsen/Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 1m59.987s | 11.009s |
| 23 | 54 | LMGTE AM | Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 2m00.024s | 11.046s |
| 24 | 88 | LMGTE AM | Khaled Al Qubaisi/Adrien de Leener/Julien Andlauer | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 2m00.060s | 11.082s |
| 25 | 33 | LMGTE AM | Ben Keating/Dylan Pereira/Felipe Fraga | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | 2m00.174s | 11.196s |
| 26 | 777 | LMGTE AM | Satoshi Hoshino/Tomonobu Fujii/Andrew Watson | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | 2m00.224s | 11.246s |
| 27 | 98 | LMGTE AM | Paul Dalla Lana/Augusto Farfus/Marcos Gomes | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | 2m00.236s | 11.258s |
| 28 | 56 | LMGTE AM | Egidio Perfetti/Matteo Cairoli/Riccardo Pera | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 2m00.278s | 11.300s |
| 29 | 47 | LMGTE AM | Roberto Lacorte/Giorgio Sernagiotto/Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 2m00.451s | 11.473s |
| 30 | 86 | LMGTE AM | Michael Wainwright/Benjamin Barker/Tom Gamble | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 2m00.801s | 11.823s |
| 31 | 57 | LMGTE AM | Takeshi Kimura/Mikkel Jensen/Scott Andrews | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 2m01.457s | 12.479s |